{"id":209631,"date":"2025-10-08T17:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/209631\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T17:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:50:08","slug":"us-man-arrested-as-suspect-in-setting-californias-deadly-palisades-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/209631\/","title":{"rendered":"US man arrested as suspect in setting California\u2019s deadly Palisades Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A Florida man has been arrested on charges that he intentionally ignited the devastating Pacific Palisades Fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and wiped out neighbourhoods at the start of the year, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Jonathan Rinderknecht is facing federal criminal charges related to the fire after an investigation by the Los Angeles field division of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); the Los Angeles Fire Department; and the Los Angeles Police Department.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and will be transferred back to the Central District of California to stand trial, Bill Essayli, the acting US attorney in Los Angeles, told reporters.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Rinderknecht started the fire after finishing his shift as an Uber driver, Essayli alleged. Videos of the fire taken on his cellphone and emergency calls were among the evidence connecting Rinderknecht to the fire, Essayli said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The fire in the Palisades started in early January and scorched more than 23,000 acres (9,308 hectares). It was the most destructive fire in the city\u2019s history, destroying some 6,000 structures around Los Angeles, causing about US$150 billion in damages.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jonathan Rinderknecht is photographed after his arrest in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday. Photo: US Department of Justice via Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ec74cd0c-ff9f-4a62-bc0a-7223d9f4db1e_5832bb52.jpg\" title=\"Jonathan Rinderknecht is photographed after his arrest in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday. Photo: US Department of Justice via Reuters\"\/>Jonathan Rinderknecht is photographed after his arrest in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday. Photo: US Department of Justice via Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Arson investigators determined that the fire started near a popular hiking trail on the hillside of a state park overlooking the Pacific Palisades overnight in early January. It ravaged large parts of the Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu before firefighters were finally able to contain the blaze about 24 days later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida man has been arrested on charges that he intentionally ignited the devastating Pacific Palisades Fire in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,119983,10584,2356,119979,2808,11639,119980,94109,3031,119981,71335,7300,25391,3,59143,119982,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-209631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-atf","tag-bill-essayli","tag-california","tag-central-district-of-california","tag-florida","tag-hawaii","tag-jonathan-rinderknecht","tag-lahaina","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-fire-department","tag-los-angeles-police-department","tag-malibu","tag-maui","tag-news","tag-pacific-palisades","tag-topanga","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}